Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A laboratory for testing for COVID-19 using Korean technologies is operating in Tashkent. Its opening was the result of cooperation between the National Chamber of Innovative Healthcare of Uzbekistan and the Korea University Clinic.

The laboratory is managed and operated on the basis of a rotational method by three representatives of the teaching staff of this South Korean university, as well as local specialists who underwent appropriate training under their supervision. As Professor Seung Joo, Yoon said, the need to organize this laboratory to conduct a PCR test for diagnostics for COVID-19 arose, first of all, in connection with the departure of Uzbek citizens to the Republic of Korea, including - to work within organized labor migration. In a pandemic, a prerequisite for those arriving in Korea is a negative test for COVID-19, which is submitted 48 hours before departure from Uzbekistan.

Before the organization of the Korean laboratory in Tashkent, almost half of those arriving in Korea from Uzbekistan with a negative test on their hands, when passing the test already in Seoul, turned out to be infected with a coronavirus infection. With the beginning of the work of the laboratory from the specialists of the Korea University, and it has been operating for a month now, the problems with the arrival of Uzbeks who were diagnosed with COVID have stopped.

This is very important for both parties. Indeed, if an infection was discovered in a person who had already arrived in Korea, he had only two options, and both were expensive. This is either to be treated for two weeks in Korea at his own expense, which is about 5 thousand dollars, or to go back to Uzbekistan at his own expense.

Tests from a Korean laboratory are more expensive than others, primarily due to the need for Korean specialists to constantly stay in Tashkent.

Based on the experience of this laboratory, at the suggestion of the National Chamber, Korean doctors are ready to train specialists from other laboratories in Uzbekistan, where testing for COVID-19 is carried out.

As lab director Eui Seob (Song) noted, the partnership with the National Chamber of Innovative Healthcare allows us to respond quickly to the most pressing health needs. Today it is a Korean technology laboratory that allows people to know exactly their COVID-19 status and safely send them on a trip. Tomorrow it may be another topical project. “Modern partnership is based on a deep understanding of the most pressing needs in any area, and especially in healthcare,” says the head of the laboratory.

In this regard, during a regular meeting held with the participation of Deputy Chairman of the National Chamber Abdunumon Sidikov, further plans for the development of bilateral cooperation were discussed with the Korean side.

We add that the Memorandum of Cooperation between the National Chamber of Innovative Healthcare of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Korea University Clinic was signed in Seoul in November 2019. The document provides for the implementation of joint projects, scientific developments in the health sector and other types of cooperation aimed at the qualitative growth of medical services for the population of Uzbekistan.